Tag: thinkpad

This blog post isn’t only directed to ThinkPad owners as most notebook Linux users with Intel Core Duo 1/2 and i3/i5/i7 processors have been affected by this bug if not all. And yes, this problem is present on latest Debian Unstable and Ubuntu 11.10.

Prelude

I’m owner of Thinkpad X300, great machine except the fact that just recently I replaced its 3rd cooling fan! Yea, I do a lot of compiling and it’s on all the time, but still this kind of things shouldn’t happen. I first linked this problem to the fact that Thinkpad fan on Linux (as of 2.6.22) always works at what’s its basically maximum RPM, thus the reason there are numerous fan control scripts. My favorite one is Thinkfan, but controlling fan doesn’t really help if you have a overheating problem. For matter of a fact it working on its maximum speed might only help, with its own toll.

As of kernel 2.6.38 up until 3.1 (still present) there has been a problem of power regression but besides this I had slight problem with overheating. Regarding overheating in beginning I tried reporting bugs, tried different Thinkfan configurations, blamed proprietary software such as Adobe Flash for spiking up CPU temperature, however this problem was somewhat solved. After numerous battery calibrations and as these didn’t work in the end for battery life getting poorer with each day, I just blamed the factor that notebook was getting pretty old (~3 years).

Since everybody and everything keeps talking about Windows 7, here’s what I’ve got to say :)

I said it tons of times, that new Windows looks is identical to one if KDE4 (posts: Gnome vs KDE … after release of KDE 4 and KDE 4) Nevethless, these guys went a step further with this same thought, Is it Windows 7 or KDE 4?

I’m spending this lovely Saturday morning to go through some bugs in Debian. Actually I set my eye on one special bug, Lenny RC bug which in few days will be 1 year old, and then this fact and figure as one ripped the stitches of my mouth, and thus I started writing this post … I want to talk few things over in general Linux development and possibly give definition to this highly cryptic title.

EXA vs XAA on i965

But before that let me tell you a little story that should’ve been told long time ago. When I got my x300, I was “thrown” on a lot of new stuff. One of the most interesting things is that i965 was blacklisted in Compiz (and as I see it now, it still is). So as I configured everything back in the day, last step was to configure Compiz. I was very surprised to see i965 to be blacklisted, nevertheless this was none of the problems that will follow.

EXA is default, EXA is supposed to replace XAA, so here’s the paradox. With that same default EXA you’ll run into numerous problems, from basic scrolling being slow, to whole compiz being incredibly slow, to the point of not being usable. Of course you can spend hours and hours tweaking and hacking to make it run any faster, maybe fix scrolling speed, you’ll make it, but the I believe the “core” of this problem is in something else. Also there is a good side to side of this story, you can play videos, however if you run them in fullscreen they’ll go just incredibly slow, no matter really what plugin you set as your video playback.

Setting video playback plugin to “No XV” didn’t do anything, neither did Xshm or any other option. But then I said, hold on, why is i965 in Compiz blacklist again?

Even tho, I got this baby almost 3 months ago now, I just got time to make a little showcase. Besides this, I just wanted to this “proper” way, so if you don’t mind the pictures and video I made with my cellphone, then … enjoy.

Intro

X300 was released earlier this year, I was literally dreaming of this notebook for a month or so, I really thought I’ll never be able to afford it, but then one day, I just woke up, and said hell, I don’t know how but I’m gonna get it!

Soon enough, I went to the store and ordered my X300, price was 2.500€ (~3.600$), since I demanded that I don’t want Windows with it (it comes with Vista business) final price I got away with was 2.400€ (~3.400). So ordered it via Genelec which ordered it directly from Lenovo, since at the time X300 wasn’t on the local market. And according to what they told me from the company, I was the second customer from Bosnia that got X300, there was this another guy from Sarajevo who got it.

Now, price of this notebook is very high, there are a lot of haters, and comments of that sort once I told them about the price. But let’s get one thing straight, I got Sony Ericsson W960, which was crazy expensive (still is), I got X300 and few other expensive things, but unlike you haters, I don’t drive fancy cars or get expensive things that are just “trendy” and “in”, instead of a fancy car I ride BMX, but when it comes to these things, I just suffer from disease to get all these tech things, but let’s just put it in a way that I know how to value and appreciate high quality engineering.

After I got enough of emails of you guys asking me: “Was that it for foolcontrol?” “Is foolcontrol dead?” “Are you dead?” “Why haven’t you been writing anything?” … I thought least I can do is post anything. Problem is that I was incredibly busy, so it all just kinda hit me hard, working on a lot of projects (simultaneously of course), then this and that … it was just too much to handle. At least in a sense to write a blog post, after work once I’m home, instead of relaxing, enjoying myslef, I’d just switch to work on my other project(s).

Don’t get me wrong, I love working, I’m really enjoying it, and this blog or whatever you want to call it, I’m doing all of this from pure enjoyment, not cuz I’m forced to do so or anything like that. And thank all to the guys who were actually “worried” about what’s happening both to me and foolcontrol. Since a lot has happened in a period since my last post, this will pretty much what “ordinary” people write on their blogs, and that is, boring stuff from their life :)

What was I doing that kept me so busy?

Beginning of summer, for most people synonym for heat, beaches, hot naked objects and beer. So just as summer started I got hired to develop School Information System for AUBIH. Briefly … Debian, Postgresql, Apache, PHP and tons of caffeine. Whole system took me around 3months to develop, and was one of the projects that kept me most occupied this whole summer.